Just scored a DVD of the COMPLETE & ORIGINAL Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'
Already had one of the many abbreviated versions but not until recently has the entire movie been available. Don't know how many of you like silent films, but I do and collect copies of the rarest when I can. It's impossible to fully appreciate modern work w/o knowing the background on which it's based. Most enduring cinematic technique originated in the silent film era. Today it might be louder and slicker, but it stands on grand shoulders. As something of an armchair sociologist and historian, I enjoy learning not only what people in different ages were like, but how they wanted to be perceived - which tells a lot about what they were really like.
Many of my favorite books were written before 1925 also. In the 8 short years I've been retired in this tiny MidWest town, it's amazing how many books a hundred years old and older that I've found in yard sales and even at library sales. Well, this is one of the oldest settlements in the Louisiana Purchase, and most people born here tend to stay put until they die, at which time the kids start getting rid of their grandparents' supposed junk.
Anyway, I digress as usual.... Some of my favorite silent films include DW Griffith's 'Intolerance', and 'Wings' and 'Jericho' (Paul Robeson). I've got most of the latter's talkies, too.
The one that eludes me is the original b&w version of 'The Wind That Shakes the Barley'. If anyone knows where/when I can pick up a fairly priced copy, I'd appreciate the notice. Never got to see it, but I understand it even has footage of Michael Collins.
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...and that would have been at a university screening back in the 1980s, so I'm not certain what the particular cut of the film was. We also watch Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (recommended) and of course The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Those are two for you to consider, unless you are limiting your diet of German media. 
I'm curious to know the origin of your Metropolis. Is this a Criterion Collection work or similar?
Also, I had never heard of this earlier film entitled The Wind That Shakes the Barley, though the theme interests me. Till now I'd only heard of a more recent film (with Cillian Murphy, I think) by that title.
